tangent
Synonym of fly off at a tangentSynonym of fly off at a tangent (“to digress from a topic”).
» Tom went off on a tangent.
Tom sprang plötzlich vom Thema ab. — Tickler
danepo · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FRMeaning
1 senses(informal, rare)Synonym of fly off at a tangent (“to digress from a topic”).
Examples
12 sentencesTom went off on a tangent.
deTom sprang plötzlich vom Thema ab. — Tickler
The line s is tangent to the circumference described.
Stop me if I go off on a tangent.
Sorry, I didn't mean to go off on a tangent.
deEntschuldigung, ich wollte nicht vom Thema abschweifen. — Malkuth
Stick to the subject, don't go off on a tangent.
deBleib beim Thema, ohne abzuschweifen! — Yorwba
Origin
Borrowed from Latin tangentem, the accusative of tangēns (“touching”) (in the phrase līneaBorrowed from Latin tangentem, the accusative of tangēns (“touching”) (in the phrase līnea tangēns (“a touching line”)), the present participle of the verb tangō (“touch”, verb), from Proto-Italic *tangō, from Proto-Indo-European *teh₂g- (“to touch”).
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Forms
tangents, tangenting, tangented, tangentedSynonyms
1 synonymsWord family
5 related wordsLessons for this word
3 lessons- A1Present simple — Because it is a verb
- A1Past simple, regular verbs — Because of its past form
- A2Present perfect: introduction — Because of its past participle
See also
neighbours in the dictionaryDictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.